Monday, February 27, 2017

We wanted to give you a recap of our experiences at the annual TCEA (Texas Computer Educators Association) Convention & Exposition. The purpose of this event is to bring together campus and district level educators to explore best practices for engaging students, increasing productivity, and innovating teaching and learning with technology. It's held over 5 days, had over 900 sessions, 10 academies, and 450 exhibitors. Our team was very fortunate to have been selected to present 10 times over the course of the week. Whew!

It was impossible to attend all the wonderful sessions available for us to attend, but here is a link to a list of 510 handouts for you to peruse at your leisure. LOL! No one has that kind of time, but the titles are indicative to what the handout covers.

As always, please feel free to contact us anytime for all your instructional technology needs. Spring break here we come!!!

Friday, February 3, 2017

We often get training requests for “Anything Google” and that’s a very broad range of products and services. We hear over and over that teacher voice and choice is essential for effective professional learning and yet, these one-size-fits-all sessions appear regularly. Sometimes, the training sessions are mandatory even if the tool wouldn’t be a good fit for that teacher.

Many times, teachers tell us they aren’t sure what specific Google tool they want to learn because they’re unsure of the product’s features and don’t know if it would be a good fit for their classroom. And worse, sometimes it is *after* a training has ended that a teacher says “I get it now but I will never be able to use this in my classroom.”

In an effort to promote voice and choice and focus on the tools and services to help teachers reach their goals, we have a great idea to help introduce G-Suite (Google Apps for Education) and decide which specific tools would be the most helpful for a teacher.

In Atomic Learning, you’ll find several short videos that introduce a Google tool. Each video is just a minute or two and can easily clear up any questions about what a tool can offer. Then, a teacher can decide which tools are worth pursuing in order to make an impact in the classroom. Follow these easy steps to find the videos:

Log in to Atomic Learning (instructions below)

In the search field, type “G Suite)

Watch the short video clip for more information on a Google tool

Note - you must be logged in to Atomic Learning to view the videos. All Plano ISD staff and students have an account. Just use the instructions below to log in at school or at home:

When you find the Google tool that piques your interest, spend a little time browsing in Atomic Learning. This online learning center also offers multiple training modules for Google tools such as Google Docs, Google Classroom, and Google Drive. You can complete a module, print a certificate, and enter it in MLP for credit! (Instructions on how to add your own hours to MLP can be found here.) Or reach out to the Instructional Technology team and we would be happy to provide training.